A NOVEL LOOK AT A LITTLE-KNOWN QUEEN

Patricia Bracewell’s debut historical novel, “Shadow on the Crown,” is about Emma of Normandy, a teen sent in the early 11th century to wed the king of England, a man she’d never met, and to navigate the treacherous waters of love, lineage and Viking invasions.

Bracewell, who lives in Oakland, will be in San Diego on Friday for a noon “Adventures by the Book” tea at Shakespeare’s Corner Shoppe. She answered questions by phone.

Q: You’ve been fascinated by England for some time. How did that start?

A: I think it goes all the way back to those books that I read when I was a kid. I think the very first chapter book I was able to read by myself was “Black Beauty.” Then I went on to “The Secret Garden,” and although it would be years before I could visit England, I had this amazing desire to see Yorkshire, where that book was set. And one Christmas, I was given a picture book of Shakespeare’s plays, so I was into those stories at a very early age.

Q: How many times have you visited England?

A: I would have to add them all up. The first time was in 1972, then in 1974, then in 1976, then in — well, let’s say six that I can think of for sure. It may be more.

Q: Tell me about the first time you stumbled across Emma.

A: I was sitting at a computer and I came across one of those bulletin board things where different people post comments and someone posted a comment about this Queen Emma and that she was married to two English kings and her father was the Duke of Normandy and her brother was the Duke of Normandy and she was the mother of two English kings and there was this back and forth about her and I thought, “Who the hell is this?” I was astonished that I knew nothing about her.

Q: Why did you want to write about her?

A: It seemed so fascinating to me that she was deeply involved in six different reigns of kings of England. Four of them she was related to by blood; the other two, well, she had to escape England to get away from those two. But she always came back. There was another thing about Emma — she had a book written from her point of view when she was probably in her 50s. It was political PR from the 11th century. That was pretty amazing, too.

Q: What kind of research did you do?

A: I didn’t know much about the period at all when I started, so I did a lot of reading. In 2007, I discovered there was a class being offered in Anglo-Saxon history at Cambridge. It was a two-week intensive class, and gosh, I always wanted to go to Cambridge. It was a summer course, and you went and lived on campus and you ate at the Great Hall. Of course it cost a ton of money. I said to my husband: “I don’t know if I’m ever going to finish this book, if I’m ever going to sell it. Is it totally self-involved of me to spend this money and want to do this?” And he said: “Who cares? If you want to do it, do it.” So I did.